CSotD: Geeks bearing gifts
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I often feel unqualified for this self-appointed gig, being more of a wonk than a geek.
I know lots of people online who can go on about ARPANET and I remember people in college with massive printouts that represented a couple of moves in a chess game with somebody in California or wherever, but the only time I went into the computer building in those four years, I was looking for a bathroom. (Found it!)
And when I was growing up, I knew who Jack Kirby and Stan Lee were. I even had a letter in Submariner once. But I didn't know who penciled what and who inked what and how many children they had. Ditto with comics in the newspaper. I was aware of the creators' names, but nothing really about them. I just read the comics.
As for gaming (keep scrolling, we're getting to the comic), I never made the switch from computer games to consoles, never got familiar with the controllers and once Madden went from choosing plays and seeing what happened to actually moving individual players around, I was done. The generation that grew up with controller in hand has some hand-eye-machine skills that leave me in the dust, which is not a fun place to be.
So I knew that there was this strip, Penny Arcade, which is a very, very big deal in the gaming universe, and so I put it on my daily menu, but I've never featured it here because, aside from an edge that can be mean and/or vulgar, it's pretty geeky stuff anyway.
Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't, but it doesn't blow me away because, well, geek humor is for geeks, and I'm not a geek.
I'm a wonk.
But I'm a wonk who works with middle-school writers, which means I have to be aware of their world, as they venture out into cyberspace (does anybody say that anymore?) on their own for the first time.
Which made Penny Arcade leap out at me earlier this week:
One of the issues we deal with is that our oldest writers are 13, so that the vast majority of both our writers and readers are too young to be wandering around on most gaming sites. One of the kids asked to review an app game the other day and pointed out that, when you play it, you're interacting with someone you know, which is different that being matched with whoever happens to be hanging out waiting for an opponent.
Fair enough. However, our rule remains that, if it isn't COPPA-compliant, we're not going to feature it. Which is also fair enough.
Meanwhile, the current Penny Arcade touched on the same chord as the earlier one, and it's not an area I've seen them get into before.
And the seasons, they go round and round, and the painted ponies go up and down, and geeks grow up and have kids and they don't stop being geeks but they do start to be parents. And I already know enough geek parents to know that they can produce some pretty fascinating geeky, nerdy, wonky kids.
But all I really knew about Penny Arcade was that they kind of stand apart from the other webcomics, having a massive following among gamers that makes them kind of their own thing. And I don't know if they even bother with ComicCon sorts of gatherings but I do know they have their own huge conventions, which blows my mind.
However, it doesn't blow my mind nearly as much as what I found when I starting poking around on their site a little more. People in the comics world have talked with some disapproval about the time they went on Kickstarter and raised some six-figure sum on the promise that they'd drop a banner ad on their site.
But I never heard about their 501c3, Child's Play, and the seven figure sum they have raised among their sponsors and fans so far this year to distribute consoles, iPads, games, apps and other stuff to children's hospitals. Check this out.
No, no, really: Check it out. $1.42 million.
Or just read these testimonials. There are a whole lot more of them on the site.
Instead of focusing on the treatment I turned my focus to the
game. It helped me escape the current world I was in and allowed me to
feel like a normal kid again. That gift did so much more for me then
just distract me, it impacted my personality and character. — John, Childhood Lymphoma Survivor
[The iPads] allow children who have been in car accidents to talk
to their parents if/when the parents are transported to adult
hospitals. You have no idea how this came as a very welcome gift for
this program! – Bethany D, Dayton Children’s
She’s only 7 years old and is facing death every day. Something
as simple as a game brought her so much joy, and she got to feel like a
regular child again, if only for an hour. Please don’t EVER stop what
you are doing with Child’s Play! Games and toys are important to
children and their development, but they are truly essential to children
fighting for their lives. — Colleen
To which this old wonk can only add a quote from my g-g-g-generation: "A brother is someone who loves you so much he doesn't give a shit what you do." — Abbie Hoffman
Keep it up, my brothers.
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